Footnote 898: Ῥαδίγερ δὲ ὁ παῖς ξυνοικιζέσθω τῇ μητρυιᾷ τὸ λοιπὸν τῇ αἰτοῦ, καθάπερ ὁ πάτριος ἡμῖν ἐφίησι νόμος. Procop. Bel. Got. iv. 20. Footnote 899: Hist. Eccl. ii. 5. The words of St. Paul, here referred to, are in 1 Cor. v. 1. Asser, Vit. Ælf. 858. The very words of Beda himself seem to prove that Eádbald’s marriage was closely connected with heathendom,—perhaps was intended to be a public profession of it. He says that the king, being terrified by Laurentius’s account of a miraculous vision he had had, “anathematizato omni idolatriae cultu, abdicato connubio non legitimo, suscepit fidem Christi, et baptizatus aecclesiae rebus quantum valuit, in omnibus consulere et favere curavit.” Hist. Eccl. ii. 6. In fact the politics of that day seem generally to have consisted in the apostasy of a converted king’s successor. The heathen priests could hardly be expected to yield quite without a struggle. The cases are curious enough to merit a detailed record. What the age of Æðelberht’s second wife may have been is unknown to us; but there is some probability that Æðelwulf’s marriage was never really consummated, that it was never a marriage at all. Judith can hardly have been more than twelve when Æðelwulf married her, and within two years he died. ----- In both the cases referred to, the obvious scandal was put a stop to by the separation of the parties[900],—Eádbald being evidently led to this step by superstitious fears, rather than submitting to an episcopal authority exercised by Laurentius. It is certainly strange in the case of Æðelbald, if there really were a separation, that we hear nothing of the interference of the Church to produce so important an event. ----- Footnote 900: Eádbald’s divorce is recorded, as we have seen, by Beda. Æðelbald’s rests on much less sure authority,—that only of Matthew Westminster, and Rudborne, Annal. Winton. Judith, after her return to France, eloped with Baldwin of Flanders, to whom she bore Matilda, William the Conqueror’s wife. See Warnkönig, Hist. Fland. i. 144. -----